The poor funding of the legal system is leading to a "Russian roulette" where innocent people could be wrongly convicted and jailed, a leading Bristol lawyer has said.

Ian Kelcey warned the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) must be properly funded by the Government in order to prevent miscarriages of justice.

The Bristol-based solicitor spoke out after a young man he was representing was cleared of rape and other sex charges against a girl under 16.

The man, who is now in his 20s, and known only as Cameron, had gone on trial at Taunton Crown Court in January.

But the trial was halted after evidence of 30,000 Facebook messages linked to the alleged victim emerged and prosecutors wanted time to examine them.

When the case returned to court on Tuesday, the prosecution decided there was no reasonable prospect of conviction and Judge David Ticehurst found the defendant not guilty of one charge of rape and five counts of sex with a girl under 16.

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The defendant said he knew the alleged victim but denied any sexual contact and said their friendship was platonic.

His lawyers said they had been asking for several months whether the alleged victim's smartphone had been examined but it was only during the trial that crucial evidence emerged.

Taunton Crown Court

Mr Kelcey, of Kelcey and Hall Solicitors, said: "This young man was at the 11th hour, 59th minute and 59th second.

"His trial had started in January and the jury had been sworn and evidence taken. Then this information that we had been asking for five months for finally came out.

"If we had not been as insistent in pushing for it and had taken things at face value he may well have ended up being tried by the jury and convicted because his case was 'I've had a platonic relationship with this girl but nothing more'.

"And it is not a leap of a million miles for a jury to say that maybe it was a bit more. He would have gone to prison for six or seven years and his whole life would have been ruined."

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Mr Kelcey put the blame on the poor funding of the criminal justice system and said the police and Crown Prosecution Service had faced 40% cuts in their budgets in the last decade.

"I think the message I want to get across to the politicians is that you have got to put some more resources into the criminal justice system because at the moment we are just playing Russian roulette with defendants' lives and liberty," he said.

"That is not good for defendants, it is not good for victims or alleged victims either. There is no quick fix to stop it.

"It has been under-resourced for years and finally some people in Parliament are beginning to wake up to that."

A CPS spokeswoman said: "At that time it was considered there was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.

"During the trial in January 2018, further evidence was provided to the police by the complainant.

"The trial was adjourned so this further evidence could be investigated by the police. This material had not previously been seen by either the police or the prosecution.

"Following a review of the new evidence, provided by the police to the CPS on March 3, it was determined there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and we offered no evidence on May 21 at Taunton Crown Court."

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Superintendent Marie Wright, of Avon and Somerset Police, added: "During a review of the case the victim disclosed additional evidence that involved some 30,000 private messages on a social media account.

"Following an extensive examination of these messages, new evidence emerged that was disclosed to the CPS, who decided based on this new information that a successful prosecution was no longer viable and as such offered no evidence."

In recent years there have been several examples of rape trials collapsing due to evidence emerging.

In January the case against Samson Makele, 28, was halted after his defence team unearthed key images from his mobile phone which had not previously been made available.

It follows the collapse of two rape cases in December, against Liam Allan and Isaac Itiary, which sparked an urgent review by Scotland Yard into around 30 sex cases.